DANIEL Abadia, the son of former Philippine national tennis player Adelo Abadia, will play for Singapore in the coming Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.
The 24-year-old Abadia recently acquired a Singaporean passport, allowing him to play for the Singapore team.
Last July, Abadia, who is no. 5 in the national men’s rankings, became part of Team Singapore at their Davis Cup tie in Vietnam.
After his playing career with the national team ended, Abadia’s father moved to Singapore in 2012 and has been a professional tennis coach for the last 10 years, winning numerous Singapore Open titles. He was part of the Philippines’ Davis Cup team with Johnny Arcilla, Joseph Victorino and Rolando Ruel Jr.
The elder Abadia is currently the no. 1 ranked player in Singapore, but only his son was included in the SEAG roster early this week by coach Daniel Heryanto as the team wants its youth movement leading the charge in the biennial games.
After missing the last two editions of the SEA Games, Singapore will seek a chance to end a 30-year medal drought. They last bagged a bronze in the 1995 Chiang Mai SEA Games.
With the young Abadia in the Singapore team bound for the SEAG this coming December are Michael Jimenez, Shaheed Alam, Jerall Yasin and Bill Chan.
They will be joined by the women’s team of Audrey Tong, Sophie Chua, Eva Marie Desvignes, Tan Sue Yan and Deanne Choo.
Tennis at the 2025 Games will comprise singles, doubles, team and mixed doubles’ competition.
Heryanto, a doubles’ gold medallist at the 1989 Games for Indonesia, said their wins over Jordan and Vietnam in their recent Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group III ties have boosted the team’s ranking and inclusion in the SEA Games’ roster.
The Thailand Games will be Alam’s fourth after previous outings in 2015, 2017 and 2019. He has dreamt of a games’ medal since he joined the national pool as a 16-year-old.
